5Schedule

5 Schedule

The quality assurance activity described in the Schedule to this declaration is, to the extent that the quality assurance activity relates to health services provided in Australia, declared to be a quality assurance activity to which Part VC of the Health Insurance Act 1973 applies.

Schedule 1—Description of quality assurance activity

1 Name of activity

Breast Surgeons of Australia and New Zealand Quality Audit

2 Description of activity

This declaration applies to the Breast Surgeons of Australia and New Zealand (BreastSurgANZ) Quality Audit (BQA).

The BQA is a clinical audit that collects breast cancer surgery and treatment pathway information from breast surgeons. The BQA compares surgeons’ clinical results with Quality Thresholds for Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) set by the BQA Subcommittee, relating to a patient’s optimal care pathway.

The BQA promotes collaborative research to improve breast cancer care through teaching, research, and the development of evidence-based strategies that monitor individual members' surgical performance and improve outcomes using evidence-based benchmarks produced from the audit. Surgeons may access their own data and analyse aggregate data from the BQA to establish an evidence base to make changes in recommended treatments to improve breast surgery outcomes.

The BQA activity will be engaged in by BreastSurgANZ, which is a sub-specialty society for surgeons treating breast cancer.

This declaration follows the previously declared activity Health Insurance (Quality Assurance Activity – BreastSurgANZ Quality Audit) Declaration 2020. This declaration is likely to encourage a greater level of participation than the previously declared activity through KPI and database expansion, redefined membership categories, and the implementation of an outlier process.